And another....

 Out and about again today. The male that was the first known return the last two years has not returned yet, tho others have shown up. They do not always show up in the same order and it may be that he hasnt survived. But its way too early to jump to any conclusions. I checked nine nests today and found one osprey....not the one I saw yesterday....but a lone female, waiting patiently on the corner of her damaged nest. What I can say with some certainty is that the early returns are always established, successful breeders. They know that the sooner they get back, the sooner they can lay eggs and the greater the chances of survival for their offspring. Its always interesting and there are always surprises. I cant afford to drive all over the study area in these early days, but I am checking some reports and making circles in areas where I don’t have experienced monitors....and just trying to incorporate nest checks in to my regular errands and commitments. Its always fun to round a corner, wondering what I will see, and spot an Osprey perched there waiting for me!

My first Osprey of 2021

 Its official! I have seen my first Osprey and read my first band! Love it when the old regulars return so early. The lakes are really opening up quickly now and as I suspected, these strong southerly winds easily carried this osprey to his home territory. I suspect we will have more birds here tomorrow! Then the winds turn around for a few days. Southerly winds again on Thursday and Friday. Should be a fun weekend searching for Ospreys!

Wish I had taken a picture of that osprey , but I encountered a problem with a nestbox and felt the need to hurry home and try to find some help to repair it. So many nest box problems this year....and I don’t always have the help I need to fix them. But i keep trying! It felt so good to see one of my Osprey friends, and hear his vocalizations....yelling at eagles.

Not yet .....But very soon

 Yesterday I visited the nests that were reported as occupied by an experienced Osprey watcher earlier this week.....I checked all nests within a five mile area and found no ospreys....and no obvious signs of ospreys, no whitewash, fresh sticks etc. I dont think we have any ospreys back on our nests in the eight county metro area yet.....but they are predicting strong southerly winds tomorrow. Perhaps that will be the day that some of our friends come cruising back to their breeding territories. I will check some nests tomorrow! I am fairly certain we will have some ospreys by the end of this week!

They’re baaaaaack.....

 Well folks.....I have recieved the first credible reports of ospreys back on their nests, tho I have not confirmed it. It is from a reliable person who has watched the nests for several years....I am going to go check a few nests closer to home today....and will check those nests this weekend (and a few others during the week that are on my daily routes). Its an early start to the season! Nests that are close to open water, only the rivers at this time, are the ones that are occupied....but the rains that are predicted for the next few days may open up other fishable waters. So there ya go!!!!! Osprey season seems to have officially begun.....holy smokes. Are you ready? Get those field books and scopes out!

Not yet...

 Lets have a little talk about migration! We are getting reports of ospreys seen in MN and tho several of us have been out checking ( I checked about a dozen nests today) no ospreys have been seen. Yes the weather has been warm but we must remember that Minnesota Ospreys migrate to south and central america for the winter. They are not watching weather reports in MN before they head north! They are hard wired to begin their migration as a response to the amount of daylight, the length of the day. And each Osprey is a little different, but we often see the same ospreys returning early to their nests, and the same ones are late every year! So we are often not surprised by which nests are occupied first. There can be changes when a long time breeding bird does not survive and a new one takes over the territory. At any rate, when they start their move northward is a hormonal reaction to the changes in daylight and doesnt change that much from year to year....but when they start to get closer to their territory they may slow down if they start encountering frozen lakes. Since ospreys are primarily fish eaters, they need a food source to depend upon when they return. So return dates may be altered slightly if lakes are open early, or remain frozen until later than usual. That last push of their migration may be effected by the weather in that regard.....will there be food or not? But generally they do not return until, at the earliest the last week of March, and at the latest, mid April. New younger ospreys may return even later than that to find a mate and a territory.

So when lakes remain frozen later than normal, the ospreys may congregate south of here....Missouri, Kansas etc.....and then we get a lot of them at once when the weather changes. We must also remember that Ospreys are not dumb. Migrating takes a lot of energy, so they prefer to fly when winds are coming from the south, to carry them home easily. They usually wont fly in to a strong north wind. Again, they may hunker down and wait. So perhaps that gives you some idea of what conditions may affect their return dates. As of now, none of my experienced volunteers or I have seen any Ospreys. Keep watching those lakes! And those winds!

On their way!

 Well my friends, I have heard about ospreys starting to show up on the east coast, so it won’t be too long before Osprey season begins here in the twin cities metro area. If you have volunteered in the past and intend to continue to watch your nests again this year, please shoot me an email at Osprey.mn@gmail.com. And if you are interested in getting involved, we always need more help watching over all these nests in the eight county area. We are looking for people with some birding experience and a spotting scope who can commit to visiting a nest, or more than one nest, once a week thru the breeding season. I have written guidelines regarding what data we are trying to collect on each nest that I can send to interested folks. We usually start seeing our Ospreys returning to their nests in late March, into early and mid April. I will post here when the first ospreys have been confirmed....so stay tuned! They are on their way!

Here is a lovely photo from Kelly Doyle....just to get you all excited!

2020 results!

 Here are the data results for 2020, for those who are interested in the numbers! 

                 2020 OSPREY RESEARCH AND PRODUCTION SUMMARY

                                              By Vanessa Greene

          The first Ospreys of the 2020 season were several territorial males that returned to their nests on April 1-2, with their mates returning the following week. The first birds to return were also the first to lay eggs on April 15. It was a good year for the Ospreys in the metro area in this 37th year of monitoring the osprey population in the eight county Twin Cities metro area, with increased numbers and a higher success rate than last year.

           There were 159 nests which were occupied* by a pair of adult ospreys. (151 in 2019). There may be more nests we do not know about and we hope the public will continue to report new nests to us. Eggs were laid in 144nests (140 in 2019). There were four additional nests that were discovered late in the season with either no birds present (2), one bird present (1) or in one case, a dead adult osprey hanging on the side of the nest, which could not be included in the above counts without more information. Some of these nests may have been frustration nests. There were 116 nests had at least one chick that was confirmed to have fledged successfully or survived to fledging age (93 in 2019). We documented 43 nests which failed (58 in 2019). We separate failed nests into two distinct subcategories; there were 15nests where a pair was present but no eggs were laid (9 last year) and 28nests where eggs were laid but they failed to successfully fledge a single chick or the cause of failure was unknown (49 last year). (Not laying eggs is considered to be a kind of nest failure by other scientists.) Out of those 28nests where eggs were laid, there were 8nests where hatching did occur but all chicks died fairly early, before we could accurately count them. The remaining 20nests failed prior to hatching or for unknown reasons. This year’s failure rate reflects a significant decrease!  The 2020 failure rate dropped to 27%. (In 2019the failure rate was 39%, in 2018it was 29%, in 2017it was 28%, and in 2016it was 25%.) We were encouraged to experience no repeat of the devastating black fly problems that occurred last year.

          There were 237 chicks that were known to have fledged successfully or survived to fledging age! (194 in 2019). Most successful nests had two chicks this year, with 47 nests with two chicks, 37nests with three chicks, and 32nests that produced a single chick. The mortality rate this year was lower than last year with 8chicks which were known to have died or disappeared before fledging, (17 last year). There were two known adult mortalities. One was a female that was found injured below a nest in early April, was taken to The Raptor Center where she had to be euthanized. The other was the adult osprey found hanging dead from the side of a nest that was discovered in early September.

          There were only 74adult Ospreys identified by their bands, as the number of banded birds continues to drop. We were sad to document that there were 18banded birds that did not return this year. Three of the returning banded ospreys were from Iowa.

          We located 20new nesting territories with a pair present, including at least one nest that was newly discovered this year although reports indicated that they had been there for more than one year, and 11of these new nests successfully fledged chicks. There was one nest which was occupied by geese and one that was occupied by Great Horned Owls. It is interesting to note that of the 159 occupied territories this year, 75were on osprey nesting platforms, 30were on cell or radio towers, 26were on ballfield lights, 24were on a power pole or transmission tower, twowere on other manmade structures and twonests were built in a tree.

          The three oldest males this year, were 17years of age, with two others that were 16 and 15. Of these five older males, two bred successfully, two others produced chicks that survived to an advanced age but did not fledge successfully, and one male failed to breed. Our oldest female was 14years old and she bred successfully.   There were four females that were 13years old, which all bred successfully.

          The overall productivity of occupied nests which were successful this year increased to 73!  (62% in 2019, 71% in 2018, 72% in 2017, 76% in 2016, 68% in 2015, 70% in 2014, 67% in 2013, and 77% in 2012). The mean number of young fledged per successfulnest was 2.04%(2.09% in 2019, 2.13 in 2018, 2.25 in 2017,2.24 in 2016, 2.43 in 2015,). The mean number of young fledged per activenest was 1.65%(1.39% in 2019,1.64 in 2018, 1.75 in 2017,1.84 in 2016, 1.88 in 2015) and the mean number of young fledged per occupiednest was 1.49%(1.28% in 2019,1.51 in 2018, 1.62 in 2017, 1.70 in 2016, 1.65 in 2015).  These numbers reflect a notable

increase in overall productivity per nest. There was one nest which has failed for six years in a row, but one nest that had failed for five years was successful this year!

          It is interesting to note that we have recorded 2,704chicks that fledged from monitored nests since the inception of this project.

           

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*Successful nests are those that were known to have fledged at least one chick successfully, activenests are those where eggs are laid and occupiednests are those where pairs are present at a nest site for a period of time, regardless of the time of year or whether or not they lay.